Liberty has been producing fabrics and textiles since the 1800s. They are best known for their floral prints, but also have masterful, gorgeous novelty and geometric prints in their catalog. Their classic prints never go out of style and their new prints are always fashion-forward and interesting. Of their various basecloths, Liberty’s Tana Lawn is the most popular and widely available. Lawn is a lightweight, semi-sheer, plain weave fabric, and Liberty’s version strikes a wonderful balance of drape and body that makes it versatile enough for a wide range of projects. It makes sublime clothing, and I’ve heard it works well for quilts too.
Want to know more? FuzzyLizzie Vintage has a nice history of Liberty fabrics here. I know no bigger proponent of Liberty prints than Erin of A Dress A Day (her Liberty posts are kept here). If it weren’t for her, I wouldn’t have known about the book Liberty & Co. in the Fifties and Sixties: A Taste for Design. Design*Sponge recently covered the history of Liberty of London here.
And now, the sources:
United Kingdom
Buying Liberty Tana Lawn directly from the Liberty of London website is about $30 US/meter at the current exchange rate, but standard delivery cost for overseas delivery is £25 (about $38 US). Standard UK delivery is £5.95. If the international delivery charge is prohibitive, and you don’t have a British friend to buy the fabrics to ship to you (hopefully at a lower rate!), try getting some sewing friends to go in on a larger order and split the shipping costs. If you go this route in the near future, you can pick up some of the gorgeous, limited edition V&A + Liberty quilting cottons.
Shaukat, established 1976, is “the largest stockist of Liberty cotton fabrics in London.” They offer several kinds of Liberty fabrics at a pretty steep discount — most of the Tana Lawn is £11/meter (just under $17) and they have online ordering with affordable international shipping rates too. Here’s your chance to try some Liberty silk and wool for around the same cost of Tana Lawn elsewhere. If you’re lucky enough to visit in person, their address is 170-172 Old Brompton Road, London SW5 0BA.
Kat’s Fabrics on eBay carries hundreds of Liberty Tana Lawn, poplin, and twill prints by the meter, as well as shorter cuts. Kat also has William Morris and Sanderson upholstery fabrics.
Alice Caroline Supply is an Etsy shop based in Cheltenham — no yardage here, only fat quarters and smaller cuts.
TillyCharles on Etsy has a small range of prints available for $26-29/meter.
Fabrics Galore reader Nathalie tells us that this Battersea/Clapham shop (52 Lavender Hill, SW11) stocks a small range of Liberty Tana Lawn, silk, Kingly corduroy, and others at very good prices (£12/m for the Tana Lawn, £18/m for the silks).
United States & Canada
Hyggeligt is a Danish word referring to a sense of feeling welcomed, loved, and content with friends, family and your own world. This shop focuses on Liberty of London fabrics (Tana Lawn $29.96 Canadian online) in addition to Westminster and FreeSpirit designers. The brick & mortar shop’s address is 4-515 Richmond Street, London Ontario – in the lane; phone # 519-679-4907.
Purl Soho has dozens of prints, including many lovely novelty prints (some from the Liberty Art Collection), $38/yard.
International Fabrics also carries dozens of prints (mostly the smaller-scale calico-like florals, and many of the classics) for $32/yard.
B&J Fabrics wins with their current stock of 246 Liberty Tana Lawn prints, priced at $36.95/yard. In addition to the Tana Lawn they also carry Liberty corduroy and jersey knits (both $42.95/yard).
Waechter’s Fine Fabrics aka Waechter’s Silk Shop of Asheville, North Carolina has a little over 40 Liberty Tana Lawn prints available through their website.
The Top Drawer is an Etsy shop specializing in Liberty. Currently there are 26 prints offered as yardage ($35-40/yard) and you can buy smaller cuts, too. Their blog offers a regular dose of Liberty love.
Glorious Color has the full collection of Kaffe Fassett-colored Liberty of London archival prints (the Liberty Art Collection), manufactured by Westminster. They are printed on a premium quality quilting cotton. The first collection out now is all paisley, and the next yet-to-be-announced collection is coming soon.
Haberman Fabrics, a brick & mortar located in a suburb north of Detroit, Michigan, is a great all-around source for apparel fabrics. They carry Tana Lawn in their physical store and online for around $39.98/yard.
Bon Bon Atelier has a handful of Liberty Tana Lawn prints available online and through their Kansas City, MO, store. $36-38/yard, half-yard cuts available. Ask Betsy about her internship at Liberty!
Fancy Tiger in Denver (umm, classes with Brini Maxwell? Whaaaat?!?) is expecting a Liberty shipment soon.
Brooklyn General reportedly carries Liberty Tana Lawn in-store, but unfortunately I don’t see any on their website. 128 Union Street, Brooklyn, New York, 11231.
When you’re in San Francisco, look for Liberty Tana Lawn at Britex and Satin Moon. Hop over the bay to Piedmont Fabric in Oakland for even more.
In Portland, stop by Bolt Fabric Boutique for all your Liberty Tana Lawn needs. You were going to go there anyway, right?
Australia & New Zealand
Amitie Textiles (281 Centre Road, Bentleigh, Victoria, 3204) has a good selection of well selected Liberty Tana Lawn prints at $48 AU per meter. You can order online, over the phone, or by mail, international delivery available.
Calico & Ivy has a full stock of classic and new Liberty prints. They also offer mixed packs. $56 AUD/meter. International delivery available.
Christabels is a brick & mortar shop in New Zealand specializing in Liberty fabrics. They have an extensive range of Liberty Tana Lawn and a small range of Liberty Kingly Cord, Liberty Twill and Liberty Varuna Wool, and also sell sewn items. Their Tana Lawn ranges from 50-58 New Zealand dollars. Phone and mail order only but I’m not sure if they accept overseas orders.
Tessuti carries Liberty Tana Lawn in-store and online (about a dozen prints are available through their online shop) — $44.92 AUD/meter; reasonable international shipping rates.
Patchwork on Central Park (East Malvern, Victoria) has quite a few of the Tana Lawn prints, including the new season. They are $55 AU/meter and international shipping is available.
Continental Europe
La Plus Belle Collection de Tissus Liberty is the blog of Stragier Couture in Belgium, the biggest importer of Liberty in Europe. It looks like they have every Liberty fabric currently in print (!), and all the different fabric types (!!), and they do offer international shipping to the U.S. and beyond that starts at just over $15. I’ve copied their price list below — see here for ordering info (in French). Oui, je veux acheter!
Tana Lawn: 19,90 €-28 €/m ($27-37 US)
Coated Tana Lawn: 34,90 €/m
City Poplin: 28 €
Twill: 37,80 €/m
Classic Jubilee: 29 €/m
Varuna Wool: 58 €/m
Crepe de Chine: 48-58 €/m
Crepe Georgette: 48 €/m
Silk Mousseline: 58 €/m
Silk Satin: 48-58 €/m
Tana Jersey 38 €/m
Carnaby Jersey: 38€/m
King Corduroy: 38,00 €/m
La Farandole des tissus (France) has several new season Liberty Tana Lawn prints, sold as fat quarters (5,45 € T.T.C. ) and by the meter. They also have lots of contemporary designer quilting cottons from the U.S.
Tissus en Liberté (France) offers a wide selection of Tana Lawn for 23€/meter, as well as Liberty Varuna Wool and a small collection of American and Japanese fabrics too.
Asia
Lilymeru Apparently Liberty produces prints especially for the Japanese market! The Etsy shop Lilymeru has a range of Liberty Tana Lawn including classic prints and prints that combine Liberty and Hello Kitty (!). The Hello Kitty prints are $39/yard and the classics are $35/yard + $6 shipping. Thanks to Jen Duncan for the info.
Apparently the mother lode of Japan-only Liberty can be found in this shop in the famous Nippori Textile Town in Tokyo. (They have two other locations as well.) Erin of A Dress A Day visited and posted the shop’s business card and map in case you are lucky enough to visit. Some of her readers provide a translation in the comments.
Reader Suchita reports that Singapore’s Chinatown (near the People’s Park Complex) has a cluster of fabric shops offering Liberty of London, the biggest being Nicole Xavier.
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Do you know of another source that I’m missing? Please let me know in the comments and I’ll be sure to add it.
{ all fabrics shown are from Liberty’s new season of Tana Lawn prints }